Project Harpoon Facebook and Instagram pages removed after Tess Holliday leads backlash against fat-shaming accounts

The accounts manipulated images of women to make them appear slimmer

Tess Holliday has been held up as a role model

Social media accounts sharing images of women that were manipulated to make them look slimmer have been shut down after one of the plus-size models targeted by users led a backlash against them.

Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr pages under the name ‘Project Harpoon’ were sharing original and edited images of women, apparently without permission.

Melissa McCarthy, Tess Holliday, Rebel Wilson and Ashley Graham were all targeted by the accounts. It is not clear who was behind the campaign, although there is evidence it may have emerged on 4Chan, which has a history of its users shaming women.

The “abominable” social media accounts were lambasted by Holliday, who called for users to boycott a Project Harpoon Facebook page that had over 12,000 followers.

"This kind of hit piece is exactly why I started #effyourbeautystandards,” she told E!. “I am asking my followers to boycott this [page] and any others like it. Loving yourself is the most powerful message we all need to stand behind.”

The Project Harpoon Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr accounts re-direct to error messages now, although an unofficial Twitter page bearing the same name still exists. The Reddit #thinnerbeauty thread is also still running.

Instagram confirmed to The Huffington Post the pages had been removed after being brought to its attention. A spokesperson for Facebook confirmed to The Independent the page was no longer available.